For people with real lives and better things to do with their time than closely follow news like… horse racing (which should include nearly all of us), we shall provide a brief review. Bob Baffert is without question the most famous and accomplished racehorse trainer in the world today. Baffert’s latest entry into the Kentucky Derby won the race (surprisingly, not a favorite), but post-race “Medina Spirit” failed the mandatory drug test. The horse tested above the maximum levels of Betamethasone a corticosteroid used as a therapeutic drug at medically indicated doses as an anti-inflammatory, not all that different than prednisone. But it can be used to cover normal pain to the point it impacts a horse’s health and creates an uneven racing field.
Baffert went nuts, saying it was a tiny amount (It was a tiny amount. The levels found would be legal in California. Funny enough, though, the Kentucky Derby is not run in California, never has been.) Baffert also said that the tiny quantities could be put into a horse’s system through creams and that anyone is allowed to walk through stables. It is almost enough to make one kind of wonder and maybe feel a little bad for Baffert until one learns that he’s had FIVE horses test positive for illegal drugs just in the last year and many over his career, a point that seems relevant to the discussion.
Humanity really ought to ban horse racing altogether (We got it done with dogs, for the most part, there are essentially no dog tracks around now). The entire history of the sport is replete with abuse of the animals. As far as we’re concerned, God created two perfect animals to place on Earth, dogs and horses. Horses are the most beautiful creature on any planet and man’s best “big friend,” whereas dogs are dogs, and nothing more need be said. To the cat people among us, cats are definitely wonderful. But they already think highly enough of themselves, they don’t need our praise.
None of this has anything to do with anything except for the fact that Baffert blamed – in part – his horse’s troubles on… yes, “cancel culture.” Evidently Baffert hasn’t really sat down and thought about it, but there’s not a lot of point in having rules if we don’t “cancel” those that break them. But Baffert said:
“These horses don’t live in a bubble. People are touching them — after the Derby, everybody is up there touching them. There are so many ways they horses could get contaminated.”
Nice excuse. almost sounds like Vegas. Yes, all those people around the horse, cameras everywhere, blanked it roses, people with syringes – yeah, we get it. But Churchhill Downs suspended Baffert anyway, and you can guess what’s coming:
“Churchill Downs came out with a statement that was pretty harsh… With all the noise that’s going on, we live in a different world now. This America is different. And it was like a cancel culture kind of a thing so they are reviewing it.”
Fck off.
“Cancel culture.” Baffert is lucky that the good people of this planet haven’t canceled the entire sport. Yes, the big-time winners, the top of the top, horses that won race after race, they live pretty good lives in retirement, paid for their… ahem, “services.” But most racehorses are not the big winners, most are big losers, and history has shown that they get abused far more than the ones showing up with anti-inflammatory levels that are a bit high. Cancel the whole damn thing, or leave it up to the horses. If a horse signs disclaimers and agrees that it wants to race, roids and all, fine. Otherwise, just put an end to the whole awful industry. Either way, though, cancel Baffert.
Bob Baffert blamed "cancel culture" after his horse, Medina Spirit, who won the Kentucky Derby, failed its post-race drug test.
"We live in a different world now. This America's different." pic.twitter.com/bsQeiV7oXi [1]
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) May 10, 2021 [2]
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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak